Inside OpenAI's renewed push into robotics - Business Insider

OpenAI quietly scaled its robotics project over the past year. Around 100 workers collect data around the clock to teach robots how to perform household tasks. OpenAI previously explored robotics, but shut down its last program in 2020.

Last year, Sam Altman posited that the world hadn't yet had its "humanoid robots moment" — but, he said, "it's coming." In the background, his AI company has been gearing up to make that happen. OpenAI quietly built up a humanoid robotics lab over the past year, insiders with knowledge of the program told Business Insider. The lab operates out of the same building as the company's finance team in San Francisco, and employs around 100 data collectors. They're teaching a robotic arm how to perform household tasks as a part of a larger effort to build a humanoid robot.

OpenAI explored robotics during its early years and built a robotic hand capable of solving a Rubik's Cube. The company closed the project in 2020; a company spokesperson said at the time that it had chosen to "refocus the team on other projects."

The inner workings of the new robotics lab haven't been previously reported. In December, the company told employees it plans to open a second lab in Richmond, California. A December job posting for a "robotics operator" with the company's contracting agency lists Richmond as the location.

The lab has a humanoid robot that multiple people described as "iRobot-like" on display, but the bot is mostly collecting dust, and few have seen it in operation. The vast majority of the work in the lab is focused on teleoperating robotic arms.

OpenAI has data collectors using 3-D printed controllers, called GELLOs, to operate two Franka robots. These metal arms have pincers at the end and perform household tasks like putting bread in a toaster or folding laundry.